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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700442">the courage of stars</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theragingstorm/pseuds/theragingstorm'>theragingstorm</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Introspection, mentions of minor character death, the realities of being a superhero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:47:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700442</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theragingstorm/pseuds/theragingstorm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When he really needs somebody, Dick goes to Metropolis.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Dick Grayson &amp; Clark Kent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>119</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the courage of stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/thychesters/gifts">thychesters</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Based on a prompt I was given on Tumblr (I'm clearbluewaters over there). This is really my first time writing the Superfamily, I hope I did okay. </p><p>Title from "Saturn" by Sleeping At Last.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="">
  <p>Dick didn’t actually get the chance to visit Metropolis very often. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Work always called, his siblings and friends always needed attention, people were always in need of help; he needed to fit what felt like a thousand encounters into just a few short hours. Besides, usually when Clark wanted to see them, he would simply fly over; he knew how much easier it was for him to visit them, rather than the other way around, and he felt inconveniencing them would be terribly rude. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Yet here Dick was, being inconvenienced. Something had been on his mind for nearly a week now, something with a gravity, pulling him down. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The ride south to Metropolis wasn't very long, but throughout, he poured over case files and called a few friends and even started doing his taxes before the train rolled into the station. The city gleamed before him like chrome as he emerged, shining in the sunlight, a million glass windows thousands of floors up flashing and winking at him. The old-fashioned newsstand contrasted with the slick modern condominium it was standing in front of, and Dick bought a copy of the <em>Daily Planet</em> from it, and an overpriced latte from a white-interiored coffee shop and read <em>Corruption Within Mayor’s Office Not An Issue, Says Mayor </em>by special consultant Lois Lane. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Lois always liked when he read her articles before he came to visit. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Among Krypto’s barking and Jon’s yelling that <em>“THERE’S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR, MOM,”</em> it was she who opened up for him. She had a pencil in her hair and a Wonder Woman mug in her hand and she looked like she hadn’t slept in at least a day; she smirked when she laid eyes on him. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Bruce didn’t ask you to apologize for the incident he caused at the LexCorp gala last month, did he?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Nope, here for my own reasons only.” </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He offered her a bouquet of flowers and a pack of nicotine gum and she accepted both. At the same time, she noticed the newspaper tucked under his arm, her name underlined in pen, and her smirk became a far more genuine smile. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“In that case, come in. It’s almost dinnertime.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Let me guess, you’re making your famous call to the take-out place?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Clark’s the cook, kid, not me.” She was still smiling though, as Krypto and Jon came running over. “He knew that when we got married.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“And all your houseguests know it now,” he quipped lightly, bending to scratch Krypto behind the ears. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Jon pulled him aside as Lois dialed the number, insistent upon telling him what happened in school that day, and Dick listened with enough earnestness to make the conversation last until after the food arrived. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>It wasn’t until Jon had plowed through all the spring rolls and everyone had slipped some food under the table to Krypto that Dick asked: </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“So Clark’s still working?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Yeah. There’ve been a lot of forest fires happening upstate.” Lois used the unused end of her chopstick to tap the relevant article on the folded-up <em>Daily Planet</em>. “And you know him, he always stays to console anyone who’s lost anything afterwards.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“I get that.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Dick had picked up the same habit after he’d first become Nightwing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“I know you want to see him, so don’t worry, he should be back tonight.” She checked the time on her phone. “Late.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Dad promised he’d be back before morning so he could drive me to school,” Jon added with his mouth full of pork dumpling. “And Dad <em>always</em>gets back when he says he does. Except when the world’s ending or something.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“That’s very true.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>After dinner, the three of them all did the dishes before Lois sat back down in front of her laptop and began typing furiously; Dick put a pot of coffee on for her before going to watch a movie with Jon, Krypto’s head resting on his lap. By the end of Disney’s <em>Hercules</em>, Jon was already yawning; Dick carried him off to his room, the boy curling into him as he did, looking so small in his flannel pajamas, black hair flopping over his fluttering eyelids. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“I always like when you come over,” Jon murmured as Dick tucked him in. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Lois was still working, but when Dick came back, he saw that she had put the flowers he’d given her in water. Smiling to himself, he went out to the balcony, leaning against the rail and gazing out over the city. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>A sharp breeze blew up, bringing with it the omnipresent sound of traffic and, even under the burning smell of cities, the fresh scent of spring. Dick pulled his jacket tighter around his shoulders and thought of his reasons for coming. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Bruce had been off-world for nearly two weeks on a mission; Damian and Cass had gone with him. Steph had school and Tim was in San Francisco with the Teen Titans and Duke was staying over with his own friends and Jason had claimed to be busy every single time Dick had called him. At least he could see and talk to Barbara, especially on patrol, but she had even more work than he did and he hated to bother her more than absolutely necessary. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Clark was always there. Always had been there, ever since he was a child and had <em>begged</em> and <em>pleaded</em> with Bruce to let him meet Superman and Superman had looked down smiling at little starry-eyed Robin and written down his phone number and told him to call him anytime he wanted. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But Dick wasn’t a child anymore. He understood the toll this life took on a person. And now that he knew Clark was busy too...maybe he shouldn’t have come. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He was so lost in thought that it could’ve been hours before he caught a glimpse of blue out of the corner of his eye. Looking up, his gaze alighted on the familiar symbol, and despite himself, his heart lifted. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Clark smelled like smoke and looked as tired as his wife, but he looked at Dick, and he beamed. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“You didn’t say you were coming over.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Sorry. I should’ve called, but...kind of an impulse decision?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Well, we’re <em>always</em> happy to see you.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Smallville?” Lois called from inside. “You finally home? Good, how many ‘R’s are in ‘corruption’?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Clark laughed, then winked at Dick. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“One minute.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In a blur of color, he swept inside; Dick turned to watch as he bent to kiss his wife, bending over her shoulder to check her spelling. His lips moved, and Dick understood that he was praising her work. Then another blur took him towards the bedrooms, Dick assumed to check up on his son, and to change. When he finally reemerged on the balcony, he was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, glasses balanced crookedly on the bridge of his nose. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>For a while, the two of them stood together on the balcony, chatting about their friends, about their day jobs, about their wives. Clark shared a story about Jimmy Olsen going undercover, and Dick shared one about Donna’s new photo gallery in Manhattan. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Then Clark said:</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Why did you want to see me, Dick?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Wha...can’t I just want to see you?”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Well, of course. But I’ve known you a long time. I know when something’s troubling you.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Plus your heart rate just sped up.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Damn Kryptonian senses,” Dick muttered halfheartedly, leaning heavily on the balcony. “It’s just work. It...it’s just getting to me, like it does sometimes. And my friends and family are all busy and you know I hate to -- you know what, I shouldn’t even be bothering you with this, you’ve had a long day and you probably want to be with Lois right now --”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Dick.” Clark looked at him, unexpectedly firm. There was a <em>reason</em>he had been able to put up with Batman for all those years, and it <em>wasn’t</em> endless optimism. “Don’t dodge the question.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Dick slumped. He stared at the city streets below almost unseeingly.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“There was a murder. A man killed his brother.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“That <em>is</em> awful. I can see why it got to you.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Yeah, but also...he pushed him through a window. He fell nearly a hundred feet.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Clark froze. He didn’t take his eyes off Dick. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“He <em>fell</em>.” It was almost a murmur. “Oh. I see.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Dick traced his nail along the metal of the railing.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“I couldn’t get to him in time; I watched as he fell. He looked a lot like my <em>dat</em> -- my dad.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Clark opened one arm. Dick almost unconsciously climbed in, and leaned against the big, solid warmth of him, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. The man’s face had seared itself into the insides of his eyelids, his expression as he reached out and found nothing but air. What he’d looked like when he’d landed. His name was Arjuna Patel; Dick was determined to remember it. He tried to remember everyone he’d saved and everyone he hadn’t, as much as he tried to remember his family.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“I don’t remember Krypton,” Clark said softly. “How could I? I was only a baby, but...I feel like I should. Every time I see explosions, see fire...it about paralyzes me. I can almost hear all of them crying out at once.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p><em>Fire.</em> The forest fires...</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Dick looked up at him.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“You must have seen thousands of those, though.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Yes. And it’s always hard. Every time.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“It is for me too,” Dick managed to say. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He cried a little more, the two of them slumping against each other. It must have been past midnight by the time he wiped his tears away, looking upwards.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The sky was so much clearer in Metropolis than in Gotham. The smog was thin that night, allowing for parts of the night sky to slip through, velvet, soft black. And among the black, points of white light shone, the stars, billions of miles away, but still managing to shine all the way to their Earth. Dick wondered how many of those stars had life orbiting them, had planets like Earth, or like Krypton. Thousands, maybe millions, he guessed. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>They had never been alone. Never. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p><em>He</em> was not alone now.</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>The two of them still standing side by side, Clark’s arm still around Dick’s shoulders, they looked up at the sky. Dick thought of his family, both old and new, and he knew Clark was doing the same. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“Let’s go in,” he said at last. “I think we all need some sleep.”</p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>“And here I thought Bats never slept,” Clark teased lightly, but Dick could see the look in his eyes, the hope that Dick would, eventually, be okay. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Lois shut her laptop as they walked inside, looping her arm through her husband’s free one. With one hand, she reached up and turned off the lights. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Above them, the stars continued to shine. </p>
</div>
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